How to Host A Mother Goose Party

Design a storybook Mother Goose Party. The table is decorated with paper cups, paper plates

 and a frosted delectable cake all in soft pastel shades of every color in the rainbow.

 Buff pink carnations, satin ribbons and helium filled balloons add polish and extra interest 

to the room. This playful party arrangement was first designed by Willie Mae Rogers and

 Dorothy B. Marsh.

Balloons to Invite Them. Such fun for tiny misses aged four years and up! For each invitation, blow up 3 pastel-colored balloons. With India ink and paintbrush, print the party details on the balloons as shown on page 80. Let the balloons dry thoroughly; then deflate them. Tuck them in an envelope, and mail to the guest. What little girl could resist?

Mother Goose Land. Rainbow chains: They're so pretty draped in the windows and doorway of the party room, with clusters of balloons added to complete the fairyland setting! And they're so easy to make, the young hostess may wish to do them all herself before the party. Cut pastel construction paper into 6‚Ä≥ x strips. Staple the ends of the first strip together to form a circle. Put the second strip through the first circle; staple; continue until you have a chain of 3‚Ä≤ or more. 

Little Miss Muffet's Table. It's pink! Use a round 45″ table or a card table with folding tabletop over it to increase its size. Cover the table with a round pink cloth. At each place, arrange pastel colored paper plate, cup. and napkin—all green, all pink, all blue, all yellow, or other color—with white plastic fork and spoon.

1.  Balloon place cards: Attach a balloon with ribbon to each child's chair back. (If balloons are filled with helium gas, they will float.) Then, with India ink and paintbrush, write on the balloon the name of the little girl who is to sit there.
2. Rainbow surprise balls: On each plate at the table, place a Rainbow Surprise Ball to be opened after refreshments. You'll need: 15 or more tiny items dear to each little girl's heart, such as an odd-shaped balloon, powder puff, piece of doll furniture, water flowers, piece of wrapped candy, bottle of perfume, ball and jacks, magnet, tiny animal figure, etc. Also folds of crepe paper, in several colors that match your party color scheme; cut these, without unfolding, into 1 inch wide strips. To make each: Starting with a small wad of crepe-paper strips, wrap up the first favor, stretching the strips and turning the ball round and round as you wrap. When the first favor is completely covered, add another favor and continue wrapping, using strips of different colors as you work. When completed, each surprise ball will be the same size.
3. Butterfly favors: One of these goes on each little guest's napkin; it has a bobby-pin back, so it can be worn in the hair. Lay a cardboard pattern of a butterfly on a double thickness of coarse crinoline. Trace around the pattern; then cut. With bright-colored poster paint, paint the butterfly; let it dry. Fold a colored pipe cleaner in half to resemble feelers. Insert it between the two thicknesses of crinoline. To form the body of the butterfly, with darning wool, stitch through the crinoline and over the feelers, going the full length of the butterfly. Next glue front and back pieces of crinoline together. Then paste on a few sequins, polka-dot-fashion; or dot butterfly wings with glue and top with glitter.
4. Old-woman-in-a-shoe cake centerpiece: It's an enchanting cake! All details are given below.

Mother Goose Party Games.

1. China dog and calico cat: This is noisy fun for early in the party. Mother collects the candy kisses and keeps score. Props: 1 paper bag marked "Kittens"; 1 paper bag marked "Doggies"; 25 or 30 candy kisses (hidden before the party). Action: Children are divided into 2 teams: China Doggies and Calico Kittens‚ with a bag for each team. At the signal, all start hunting for kisses. When one tiny miss finds n kiss, she mews or barks until Mother gets to her, picks up the kiss (children mustn't pick up the kisses themselves), and drops it into her team's paper bag. At the end of 10 minutes, the kisses are counted. Each member of the team with the most kisses selects a prize from the table. Then the remaining children each collect a prize. They can't lose!
2. Mother goose playhouse: Have all the children recite or sing nursery rhymes, acting them out at the same time. For instance: Jack and Jill went up the hill (point finger upwards), To fetch a pail of water (pick up imaginary pail); Jack fell down (all fall down) and broke his crown (pat top of head ) And Jill came tumbling after (with hands, make tumbling motion).
3.  Put-the-candles-on-the-cake: (a new version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey)  Props: A large piece of white paper on which a birthday cake is drawn (to be tacked up before the game); a different colored crayon for each child; a blindfold. Action: Each child is blindfolded and asked to draw, with her crayon, 3 candles on the cake. The child who puts candles in the most appropriate place is the winner.
4. Mother goose quiz: Children as well as adults love a quiz. Props: A good supply of questions. Action: The children are again divided into 2 teams: Kittens and Doggies. Teams sit. facing each other. Mother asks a question first of one side and then of the other. Sample questions might be: Where did Jack Horner sit? What did Little Miss Muffet sit on? Where did Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater put his wife? How many fiddlers did Old King Cole have? Who put the kettle on? What ran up the clock?

More little folks' games: Play each of the following games for just 5 minutes; then the children won't tire so easily.

• The Farmer in The Dell
• Hide the Thimble
• Did You Ever See a Lassie?
• London Bridge
• Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush

Party Food: 

Humpty Dumpty Sandwiches:

1.  For each sandwich, prepare a stuffed egg; put halves together.
2.  Using white bread with crusts removed, make a 3-decker sandwich, with peanut butter, deviled ham, and apricot jam as fillings.
3.  Cut sandwich in half. Place halves, end to end. on paper plate; top with Humpty Dumpty (the stuffed egg), using plastic straws to skewer him in place. Use 2 thin carrot sticks for legs, letting them extend over edge of sandwich.
4. Now mix together red. blue, and yellow food colors to achieve a brown shade. With a new paintbrush, draw features on Humpty.

Old-Woman-in-a-Shoe Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 pkg. yellow cake mix.
• Party Cream (page 185) 1 pkg. fluffy white frosting mix.
• Licorice candy.
• Red cinnamon candy.
• 2 or more pkg. thin 1" candy wafers.

Directions: The Cake Foundation: Bake cakes a day or so ahead: store, covered. Or bake them several days or weeks ahead; freezer-wrap; freeze. To make and bake cakes, proceed as follows:

1. Start heating oven to 350" F. Grease well 10" x 5" x 3" loaf pan.
2. Prepare 1 pkg. cake mix as label directs; turn into loaf pan. Bake about 55 min., or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
3. Cool cake in pan on rack 10 min.; remove from pan; cool on rack.
4. Make second cake loaf same way.

Shaping the Shoe Cake: The evening before the party, put cake together and decorate as below; then refrigerate or freeze overnight.

1. Cut piece of heavy cardboard into 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" oblong; round off all 4 corners; cover with aluminum foil.
2. From end of 1 loaf cake, cut 6" piece; reserve both pieces.
3.  From other loaf cake, cut off both ends to make loaf 7" long.
4. For toe part of shoe: With small mound of Party Cream, glue 6" cake piece, with its cut side facing in, to one end of cardboard.
5.  For leg part of shoe: Glue 7" cake piece, standing up, with rounded side facing out, to other end of cardboard, so it's snug against cut side of first piece of cake.
6. Now, with sharp paring knife, carefully round off and trim corners and edges of cake to resemble shoe.
7. To prepare for peaked roof: On each side of 7" leg, 1" down from top, make upward cut to center top of cake; remove these 2 pieces of cake.
8. For peaked roof: From reserved cake pieces, cut 2-1/2"-thick slices; trim each to 3-1/2" x 3-1/4". Glue each slice to one slant of leg so they meet in center. Hold slices in place with 2 pieces of plastic straw or with toothpicks.

Frosting Top and Sides of Shoe Cake:

1. Now make up fluffy white frosting mix as label directs; tint pink with red food color; spread thin over entire shoe, to set crumbs.
2.  Then generously frost shoe with rest of pink frosting, building up shape of shoe over instep and at toe.
3. Cut 9 strips of licorice, each 1-1/2" x 1/4"; use to make lacings. Use red cinnamon candies for holes. Cut 2 strips of licorice, each 3" x 1/4", for ends of shoelaces. Place on cake as shown.
4. To make shingles on roof: Starting at bottom of roof on each side, overlap candy wafers in overlapping rows, alternating colors as shown.
5.  To about cup Party Cream, add 2 tablesp. cocoa; use in cake decorator with ribbon tube to make door, shutters, and sole around shoe.
6. Using white Party Cream in cake decorator with rosette tube, outline door and windows; then make windowpanes and doorknob.
7. Arrange short birthday taper candles on ridge of roof.
8. The Yard for the Shoe Cake: Set shoe cake on white round board or cardboard, with ribbon around edge as shown; then place tiny rubber children here and there in yard.
9. To cut cake, first slice toe part into 6 to 8 slices. Then cut off rest of cake just below roof (be careful of straws); remove. Slice this part of cake into 6 to 8 slices. Makes 12 to 16 servings.